AWARD                                             WINNER                    EXHIBIT

Best Labyrinth                                   Sue Sharp                  Dwarf Gourami

Best Singletail Goldfish                    Not awarded

Best Breeders                                   John Rundle               Corydoras sterbai

Corydoras sterbai

Best Shubunkin                                 Not awarded

Best Catfish, Loach and Labeo      Barrie Kitchinman     Corydoras trilineatus

Best Twintail Goldfish                       Ted Burnett                Twintail Goldfish

Best Guppy (Male)                            Ted Burnett                Guppy

Best Guppy (Female)                       Not awarded

Best Any Other Species                   Not awarded

Coldwater Fish         

Best Marine Fish                               Not awarded

Best Tropical Egglaying Fish          Barrie Kitchinman     Melanotaenia lacustris

Best Swordtail, Platy and Molly       Barrie Kitchinman     Red Platy

Best Any Other Species                   Not awarded

Livebearer

Best Aquatic Plant                            Ted Burnett                Tropical Water Lily

AWARD                                             WINNER                    EXHIBIT

Best Pair of Egglaying Fish Bill Rundle                  Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Best Pair of Livebearing Fish          Ted Burnett                Platies

Annual Table Show Winner  Ted Burnett                Swordtail

Swordtail

Other Awards

Member of the Year                          Sue Sharp

Table Show League Winner            1^st        Ted Burnett                            61 points

2^nd       Barrie Kitchinman                 42 points

                                                            3^rd        John Rundle                           30 points

Most Best in Show Awards              Barrie Kitchinman and John Rundle

Most Best Junior Awards                 Not awarded

Best Home Aquarium                       Julie Rundle

Best Pond                                          John Rundle

Best Photograph                               Richard Evans

Editor’s Award                                  Richard Evans

Research Award                               Not awarded

 GALAXY RASBORA ENDANGERED                  MATT CLARKE

This is an extract from the P.F.K. Website. Matt keeps his finger on the pulse of all things fishy.  This is a warning to all those who exploit our hobby.

 Dear Reader,                                                                  

“ When I saw the first photographs of the Galaxy rasbora back in September last year, I was astounded. It was clear that the species had massive commercial potential. And since its introduction the global response to the fish, and the demand for it, has been unprecedented. Fishkeepers around the world have been after this species and each has been buying them by the dozen.

Sadly, when this fish was first introduced, we didn't know what we do now. New details emerged last week which revealed that the species is from a tiny high-altitude wetland microhabitat. The initial supplier tried to keep the location under wraps, but a number of other collectors found it and have flattened the vegetation in which the fish lives. The catch has decreased to just a few dozen fish per day. Given that the species has now been successfully bred by a number of fishkeepers, I feel that the hobby now has a responsibility to stop importing this species and to concentrate on its captive-breeding. Hopefully, if demand declines, the habitat and populations will recover and the species will live on. Fingers crossed “.

Galaxy Rasbora

 HI-FIN SWORDTAILS                                                     JOHN RUNDLE

I have to be honest and say that I am not a fan of the manmade varieties of long finned fish, for example long finned danios and barbs.  There is however a couple of varieties of long finned livebearers that I first came upon in my early days within the hobby that I like.  They are the long finned swordtails, known as the Hi-Fin and Lyretail Swordtails. 

It reminds me of the time way back in the 1960’s when I first saw pictures of the Hi-Fin swordtail in an American magazine.  Then out of the blue there before me in a fish club auction was a bag of beautiful red wagtail Hi-Fin swordtails.  A club member had bred them and there I was a veritable novice at this time who just had to have these fish.

GENERAL SWORDTAIL INFORMATION

Here are a few general notes about swordtails worth noting.  An adult male swordtail is a sight worth seeing with a body that could be 10cm not counting the swordtail extension to the caudal fin that gives this fish its common name.   Females can grow larger than the males at 12cm.

Wild Green Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii)

Swordtails make ideal community tank fish, though at times males can be a bit boisterous to each other and a lone swordtail can become a rogue fish in a community tank.  This aggression can be kept to a minimum by keeping a group of swordtails no less than one male and two females. 

Found under the name of Xiphophorus hellerii (Heckel 1848), this fish has an indigenous geographic range that extends from Honduras through Guatemala up to Mexico .  It has been bred by fishkeepers since 1864, but the domestic man-made varieties were first introduced to the hobby in the 1930’s.

BREEDING

I feel that I again must stress the point of the misconception that livebearing fish like the swordtail are easy to breed.  Yes, they will readily produce fish, but no, it is not easy to produce quality progeny using ad-hoc breeding methods.

When fishkeepers find baby livebearers like our swordtails hiding within the cover of plants in the community tank, they become fish breeders.  The problem is that this is often the start of ad-hoc breeding methods that are undesirable.  Of course it is possible to raise the fry to raise the small numbers of fry that are probably the remains of a larger brood that have been devoured by other tank inmates. 

Other factors are that these fry are left to forage on leftover from the larger fishes’ menu, and the fish breeder cannot control the parentage of the fry.  The control of selection of male and females for breeding is a must when breeding any of the cultivated livebearing fish. 

Plastic Breeding Trap

I know that small plastic breeding traps can be used to hold gravid females, but this method has faults. These traps are often too small to hold large broods of young fry and an adult female swordtail could have 50 or more fry.  They also do not allow control over growth rates because of incorrect feeding.

In other words the correct way to breed the Hi-Fin and Lyre tailed swordtails is to have more than one tank and use inbreeding or line breeding methods. 

I hope that this brief article has explained the details about a couple of very attractive cultivated varieties of livebearers and will encourage you to find out more on how to develop a correct breeding system.

FURTHER READING

Breeding Livebearers by John Rundle. It is in the Practical Fishkeeping series published by Ringpress.   

FISH WORLD RECORDS                                   STAN McMAHON

THE FASTEST FISH IN THE WORLD

I have a few interesting, in an anorak sort of way, fish world records. My first record is the world’s Fastest Fish Is it a flying fish or a barracuda?  No, it is in fact a Sailfish.

Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)

Sailfish (genus Istiophorus) are fish living in all the Oceans of the world. They are blue to grey in colour and have a characteristic sail (dorsal fin) on top, which often stretches the entire length of the back. Another notable characteristic is the elongated bill, resembling a Swordfish.

All Sailfish species grow quickly, reaching 1.2 to 1.5 metres in length in a single year. They feed on the surface or at mid-depths on smaller pelagic fish and squid.  Individuals have been clocked at speeds of up to 68.5 mph, making them the fastest fish in the Ocean. Generally Sailfish grow to no more than 10ft. In length and rarely weigh over 200 pounds.

The Sail is normally kept folded down and to the side when swimming, but it may be raised when the Sailfish feels threatened or excited making it appear much larger than it actually is. This tactic has been observed when the Sailfish group together and use their sails to “herd” a school of fish or squid.

Submerged Sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus)

THE HEAVIEST FISH IN THE WORLD

The heaviest fish in the world is the Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus). The Whale Shark inhabits the worlds tropical and warm temperate Oceans. The Whale Shark is solitary and is rarely seen in groups unless feeding in locations with an abundance of food.  As a filter feeder it has a capacious mouth which can be up to 1.5 metres (5ft) wide and can contain up to 300 rows of functionless tiny teeth, it has five large pairs of gills. Two small eyes are located at the front of the shark’s wide flat head. The body is mostly grey with a white belly, there are three prominent ridges which run along each side of the body and the fish’s skin is marked with a “checkerboard” of pale yellow spots and stripes. These spots are unique to each other and because of this they can be used to identify each animal and hence make an accurate population count.

The Largest specimen reliably recorded was 12.65 metres (41.5ft) long and weighed 21.5 tonnes (47, 300 pounds) and had a girth of 7 metres.

The Whale Shark is one of only three filter feeding sharks (Basking Shark and Megamouth Shark).  It feeds on plankton, macroalgae, krill, small squid and vertebrates.

Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)

Whale Sharks are known to frequent the waters off Donsol in the Sorsogon province of the Philippines .

THE MOST VENEMOUS FISH IN THE WORLD

The Stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa) also known as the reef stone or Dornorn, is a carnivorous ray-finned fish with venomous spines that lives on the reef bottom camouflaged as a rock. It is the most wide spread species of the Stonefish family and is known to be found in shallow tropical marine waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, ranging from the Red Sea to the Queensland Great Barrier Reef.

Stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa)

The average length of most Stonefish is 30 to 50 centimetres. It has a mottled greenish to mostly brown colouration which aids in camouflage amongst the rocks of many tropical reefs.

The Stonefish eats mostly small fish, shrimps and other crustaceans. The primary commercial significance is in the aquatic retail hobby. They are also sold for their flesh in Hong Kong markets. Stonefish are also sold in Japan as expensive Sashimi cuisine (called Okoze). I have seen Stonefish in tanks in restaurants in Vietnam and in Bangkok , you can choose your own from the tank and the chef prepares it for you, yum!

Stonefish exhibiting its camouflage colours

The Stonefish dorsal area is lined with spines that release a venomous toxin. It is the most dangerous of known venomous fish and its venom causes severe pain with possible shock, paralysis and tissue death. Depending on the depth of penetration this level can be fatal to humans if not treated within a couple of hours.

Common versus scientific                                                   

names of fishes                                           PETER BURGESS

 Peter Burgess is a consultant with The Aquarian Advisory Service

The problem with using common names of fishes is they can sometimes be very misleading. One well know example is the red-tailed black shark which is a species of botia and not, of course, a relative of jaws! Coldwater enthusiasts may be familiar with "Hong-Kong plecs" or "butterfly plecs" which are close relatives of the Borneo suckerfishes (Gastromyzon) and nothing at all to do with plecostomus catfishes (or butterflies).

Gastromyzon Sp.

So it's easy to get confused. In some cases, these common names are dreamt up by the exporters in order to make the fish more desirable to aquarists and hence boost sales.  That's business, I guess.

Scientific names are certainly more difficult to memorise or pronounce but they leave no doubt as to which type of fish we are referring to - and that makes it easier to look the fish up in the books. Scientific names can also tell us something about the fish itself, provided we know a sprinkling of greek and latin.  The scientific name should be written in italics and comprises the genus name, with begins with a capital letter, followed by the species name. For example, the scientific name of the common swordtail is Xiphophorus helleri (say this name out loud ten times each morning and you will tone up those sagging facial muscles ! - you might also get taken away by men in white coats.....). The genus name Xiphophorus means "bearing a sword" - so it is very descriptive of the male fish, and helleri refers to the German gentlemen who first brought back specimens - Herr Heller.

Green Swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii)

The species name often gives a clue to the fish's appearance, such as:

auratus = golden

fasciatus / fasciatum = striped/banded

ocellifer = with eye-like spot

hexazona = six banded

or where it comes from:

javanicus = from Java

belizanus = from Belize

mexicanus = from Mexico

essexii = from Essex (only joking!!)

My favourite scientific name belongs to the brackishwater scat: Scatophagus argus - which literally means "many-eyed muck-eater"!  Now there's a useful snippet of information to impress your friends!

  The Scat (Scatophagus argus)

Catfish being hauled in!

Basketball deflated

The Lucky catfish has Basketball removed.